The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-07-27
POPULAR SCIENCE.

A new sword handle has been con-
structed by Leipsic professor on, it is
claimed, anatomical principles. The de-
signcr asserts that, being planned with
reference to the hands mechanism, it can
be held with absolute security.
1t is not necessary to have different
metals to obtain a current of electricity.
Iron in nitric acid and iron in sulphuric
acid, the two fluids being separated by a
porous partition, will give current, one
plate wasting away while the other is
thickened.
The threatened extinction of edelweiss
and other Alpine flowers, short time
ago, led to the founding of gardens and
enclosures for the cultivation and protec-
ton of these plants. At one of these
mountain stations, at height of about
$500 feet, plants of the Pyrenees, the
Himalayas ard the Caucasus are cultiva-
ted, as we'll as those of the Alps.
According to Professor Woodward, of
Washington. in about $500 years the
rock over which the falls flow at Niagara
will be all worn away. The area of the
rock worn away at Horseshoe Falls be-
tween the years 1912 and 1875 was
$500 square feet, equal to 0.425 acre; :;
between 1915 and 1856, 60, 900 square
feet, or 81 acre. The main length of
the contour of the falls is 1900 feet.
The time required to recede one mile, if
the rate is "a feet per year, is 1900
years.
1t appears from a memoir sent by DR..
Jammes to the Academic dcs Sciences
that, unlike other animals, monkeys
readily acquire the habit of taking NOR
phia. When monkeys live with opium
smokers, and become accustomed to a
me,iicated atmosphere, they acquire a
taste for the poison. One monkey, for
instance, would wait until his master
had laid aside his pipe, and would then
take it up and smoke what remained. If
not allowed to do so for several days it
would fall into state of depression and
stupor, which disappeared as soon as the
stimulant was supplied.
The metric system, according to a
statement recently prepared by MIR.
James Jackson, of the Geographical
Society of Paris, is obligatory by law
throughout Europe except in Russia and
Turkey, and in eight of the South Ameri-
can States, the total population of these
countries being 241, 973,O11. 1t is
optional by law in the United States,
the Dominion of Canada, Great Britain
and Ireland and Persia, with q total
population of 81, ,639,S2 In six coun-
tries, including English India and Russia,
with a population of S33, 26G, 1886, it is
often used without having legal value.
An interesting phenomenon has for
some time past been observed on
the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea.
The Kara Bobhas is an estuary nearly
separated from the main body of the sea
by bank through which there is an
inlet The evaporation from this gulf is
so great that current continually sets in
from the Caspian, and, as there is no
return current, the water of the gulf be-
comes more and more saliferous, and
deposit of salt is in course of formation.
The natural result of this would appear
to be that in time this gulf will be cut
off fIom the Caspian, and being thus
dried up, will become an extensive salt
bed.
At a recent meeting of the Physiologi-
cal Society of Berlin it was stated that
when the bee has filled the cell either
with pure houey or mixture of pollen
dough and honey, and has completed the
lid, a drop of formic acid obtained from
the poison-bag connected with the sting
is added to the honey by perforating the
lid with the sting. Numerous expert
mcats show that this formic acid pre-
serves honey and every other solution
from fermentation. If this be we'll es-
tabl shed it will show that the sting and
the poison apparatus of the bee has q
further purpose than that of defensive
or offensive weapon. Another interest
ing fact suggests itself in connection
with this. So far as is known most of
the insects that have singing apparatus
similar to that of the bee are collectors
and storers of honey.